Living without a smartphone: The definitive guide

I don't really care about what the author says on other topics. The TikTok trial should've opened everyone's eyes that there is indeed a grand conspiracy with social media. In particular, governments would be wise to consider it's exploitation by state level adversaries and the consequences of letting foreign actors unfettered access to the minds of your citizens.

That being said, there's some truth to the "anti-millenial" sentiment. In the past week I made friends with someone who I had a lot in common with. The fact I did not have any social media at all ended the friendship as quickly as it started. With no way to "follow" me on one of these platforms it seemed that just swapping numbers was out of the question. You could argue then they really weren't a friend at all but the level of commonality between us was uncanny. Another example: My nephew (a...uh whatever comes after zoomer) has been bullied in school because he does not have the latest iphone.

There is absolutely truth to the way society has fundamentally switched from privacy-first to carrying around a literal tracking device that is designed to sell you products in their pockets everywhere. You can't help but wonder what the consequences are. It's clear to me, at least, that none of this is done with our best interests in mind.

We're the smart people. We think the right thoughts.

Personally, the fact that "books stop working" [1] if DRM runs out scares the heck out of me, but not enough to stop buying cheap books on Amazon.

[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamrowe1/2019/06/27/the-books-...

To be honest with you, things changed for me mentally when I got rid of the smart phone. When I hear people say things like this, it kind of sounds similar to an addict talking about why they need a cigarette when they are stressed. It looks like that to me at the store and at the playgrounds when I watch parents playing around on their phone instead of with their kids too.